Amit Shah slams 'infiltrator protectors', says SIR essential to cleanse democracy

Without naming the West Bengal CM, Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday launched a veiled attack on Mamata Banerjee for her opposition to the ongoing Special Intensive Review (SIR) and said that the mandate in recently-held Bihar elections is that of India and against infiltration.

"I want to warn those political parties who are protecting the infiltrators that the Bihar election gave the mandate of the people of this country and the mandate is against the presence of infiltrators (in India)," Shah said, adding that the people of India will never support the intentions of those parties who are trying to protect the infiltrators in electoral lists.

Shah was addressing the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Border Security Force (BSF) in Bhuj in Gujarat. Stating that stopping infiltration was not only important from the security point of view but also to protect the democratic system from corruption, Shah added that BSF is engaged across all the borders of the country to stop infiltration.


"But it is unfortunate that some political parties are trying to weaken the move to remove the infiltrators and are opposing the SIR that is being carried out by the EC," Shah said. "I am making it very clear from the diamond jubilee celebration that it is our promise that we will identify and throw out the infiltrators one by one." "Who is to become the chief minister of any of the states of this country or who is to become the prime minister, that decision can only be made by the peopsle of India. No infiltrator has the right to pollute the democratic system of our country and influence our democratic decisions," Shah said. "SIR is in a way a process to secure and cleanse our democracy," he said. He appealed to people of India to extend full support to the process.